Vendors, wholesalers ‘helpless’ amid food safety scare

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Vendors and wholesalers have been helpless and forgotten amid the snowballing controversies over tainted edible oil products and public concerns over food safety due to the government’s inaction, business owners told a press conference organized by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday.

“Thousands of vendors and wholesalers across the country have been on the ‘front line’ dealing with returned merchandise and refunds to consumers since the tainted oil controversy broke out, but we don’t know if we can get our money back from the upstream manufacturers,” store owner Chen Nian-tien (陳年添) told reporters.

Civic groups file lawsuit against business pair

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Civic group representatives filed a lawsuit with the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office yesterday against two China-based Taiwanese businessmen over alleged bribery in last year’s presidential election.

The lawsuit was filed against Kuo Shan-hui (郭山輝), chairman of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland (全國台灣同胞投資企業聯誼會), and Yeh Hui-te (葉惠德), the association’s executive vice chairman, after the two called for immediate ratification of the cross-strait service trade pact in a press conference in Taipei yesterday morning.

More credit deserved for Chen years, panelists say

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) deserves more credit for its economic performance during the eight years it was in power, and the common perception that it is less capable of managing economic affairs is wrong, panelists told a seminar yesterday.

The panel discussion was the first of four weekly installments bringing together academics and former government officials to thoroughly review the administration’s performance in 17 policy areas from 2000 to 2008.

Su returns from Thailand with full agenda

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) returned from a four-day trip to Thailand last night with a number of urgent issues on his agenda.

During his trip, Su was able to avoid answering questions about the party’s position on several contentious issues, including former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) proposal for a national affairs conference and a campaign to recall “incompetent” lawmakers.

Su downplays Tsai differences ahead of Thai visit

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) is scheduled to leave for a four-day visit to Thailand on Thursday to meet with Taiwanese businesspeople and review Taiwan’s economic and investment policy toward the Southeast Asian region, the DPP announced yesterday.

Trade and investment will be high on the agenda for the trip against the backdrop of a cross-strait service trade agreement recently signed with Beijing, which is expected to negatively affect Taiwanese businesses and increase the nation’s economic dependence on China, DPP Department of International Affairs director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠) told reporters at a briefing.

Hsieh wraps up cross-strait forum in HK

PROPER CONDUCT:The former premier said that despite the importance of bilateral exchanges, it was important for the DPP and the CCP to keep an ‘appropriate’ distance
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday closed a forum on cross-strait relations in Hong Kong by saying that mutual trust was important between the DPP and Beijing and that all bilateral exchanges should benefit the public and address their needs.

In his closing remarks to the two-day forum titled “Development and innovation of cross-strait relations,” Hsieh reiterated the importance of rebalancing cross-strait interactions, which have been narrowed down to interactions between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Ma erred and ECFA failed to benefit Taiwan, DPP says

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has failed to bring benefits to the people of Taiwan, despite assertions by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that it would, and Ma has “mishandled” and “misjudged” the cross-strait negotiations for the pact, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.

Ma has failed to deliver on at least eight of his pledges related to the agreement, the DPP said in its review of the pact, which was hailed as a landmark deal by most analysts, on the eve of the third anniversary of its signing at a news conference yesterday.

Lawmaker calls for FTC report on refiners’ prices

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) yesterday said that he would request the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) investigate potential anti-competitive activity by CPC Corp, Taiwan, and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) within a month of the start of the upcoming extra legislative session.

Gao told a press conference that he was pleased that the FTC plans to launch another investigation into CPC and FPC, the nation’s only oil refiners, over a potential monopoly.

TTL slammed over Chinese imports

’VODKA’:A lawmaker alleged that the state-owned firm imported Chinese-made liquor, mixed it with Taiwanese Kaoliang and then sold the bottles to China for a profit
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Co (TTL) has been illegally importing Maotai (茅台酒), a Chinese-made liquor, before reselling it to China as a TTL product after reprocessing, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) told a press conference yesterday.

The company allegedly imported 60,000 liters of Maotai, labeled as vodka, which is the only Chinese-made liquor granted import permissions after Taiwan’s accession to the WTO in 2002, and mixed it with domestically made Kaoliang liquor to manufacture 240,000 bottles of Yushan Taiwan Maotai, Chao said.

Lawmaker says travel agencies threatened

BIG BROTHER:Fears were raised that Beijing could leverage its economic prowess by subsidizing Chinese companies and driving Taiwanese agencies out of business
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan’s travel agencies could suffer from the signing of a cross-strait service trade agreement due to differences in the size of the two economies across the Taiwan Strait and the principle of reciprocity present in any free-trade agreement, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said yesterday.

Hsu examined the potential impact the pact may have on local travel agencies once it is signed, as the government has not yet completed an impact assessment for the pact, which the Straits Exchange Foundation said could be signed before the end of the year.

AIDC privatization plan draws mixed reactions

BIG RISKS:A legislator said that the corporation could fall into foreign hands if privatized, which could lead to national security being breached because of leaks
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

A plan to privatize state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) has drawn mixed reaction after the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) endorsed the move, while a lawmaker raised national security concerns.

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) told a press conference yesterday that he opposed the privatization plan submitted by the Taichung-based aerospace company under the ministry to the Executive Yuan on March 28.

DPP pair voice concerns over VW plant

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers from Greater Kaohsiung yesterday questioned whether the municipality has been excluded from location options for an investment by German automaker Volkswagen — an accusation the central government denied.

Legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) and Hsu Chih-chieh (許志傑) told a press conference that only New Taipei City (新北市) officials were invited to a meeting with Volkswagen representatives, Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and government officials on Feb. 1.

Lawmakers urge FTC to probe oil refiners’ pricing

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Lawmakers yesterday urged the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate CPC Corp, Taiwan, and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) over potential monopoly pricing following the commission’s decision to fine independent power producers for collusion.

The FTC on Wednesday fined nine independent power producers a total of NT$6.32 billion (US$213.08 million) for collusion after they rejected requests by Taiwan Power Co to renegotiate electricity prices.

Approval of mobile payment service bid draws fire

CONDITIONS:：The Fair Trade Commission said the service, a joint bid by five telecoms firms and EasyCard Corp, carried risks, but that it had set rules to prevent a monopoly
By Camaron Kao and Chris Wang  /  Staff reporters
Thu, Jan 24, 2013 - Page 1

The Fair Trade Commission yesterday conditionally approved a bid by five major telecommunications companies and EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡公司) to establish a joint venture to offer mobile payment services. However, opposition lawmakers accused the commission of treating the bid as a joint venture rather than a monopoly.

The five telecoms carriers — Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Corp (台灣大哥大), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信) and Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信) — will set up a trust service management (TSM) company with EasyCard.

Lawmaker lashes out at state firms’ bonus policy

UNFAIR DISTRIBUTION:A legislator said the bonuses that state firm workers get are almost equal to a year’s pay for about 850,000 private-sector employees
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

A lawmaker yesterday accused state-owned companies of distributing high year-end bonuses regardless of the companies’ performance.

Employees of state-owned enterprises — such as CPC Corp, Taiwan, Taiwan Power (Taipower) and Taiwan Sugar — often received a year-end bonus of up to 4.6 months of salary regardless of how the companies performed during the year, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.

DPP legislators call for suspension of Transglobe merger

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus is set to propose suspending Transglobe Life Insurance Inc’s merger with Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co tomorrow in the legislature, because it says the company’s operations and the actions of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) are both questionable.

DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference that Transglobe’s winning of the auction for the insolvent Kuo Hua with a bid of NT$88.37 billion (US$3 billion) on Nov. 27 posed many questions that need to be answered.

Hundreds of university students gather in Taipei to protest Next Media deal

By Chris Wang and J. Michael Cole  /  Staff reporters
Fri, Nov 30, 2012 - Page 1

Hundreds of young Taiwanese from around the nation yesterday continued to put pressure on the government to act against media monopolization and reject the sale of the Next Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團) Taiwanese businesses to two consortiums with a six-hour protest outside the Joint Government Office Building, where officials from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and academics were holding a public hearing on the sale.

Next Media Group signed an agreement on Tuesday to sell its four Taiwanese businesses — the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Next Magazine, Sharp Daily and Next TV — for NT$17.5 billion (US$600 million) to two consortiums comprised of Chinatrust Charity Foundation (中信慈善基金會) chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) chairman William Wong (王文淵), Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Lung Yen Life Service Corp (龍巖集團) chairman David Lee (李世聰) and Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance Co (台灣產物保險) chairman Steve Lee (李泰宏).

The sale has raised fears of a media monopoly and undue influence from China on Taiwan’s media, in light of the investors’ major business operations across the Taiwan Strait. Critics of Tsai, Taiwan’s wealthiest person, who made his fortune in China, have accused him of interfering with editorial matters at his other media outlets.

Former employee accuses HTC of labor malpractice

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

A man surnamed Chiu (邱) yesterday accused smartphone manufacturer HTC of illegally laying off hundreds of part-time workers in July.

Chiu was one of hundreds of part-time employees fired without warning by HTC, who never signed contracts with them, he said at a press conference organized by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君).

Legislator echoes worries of China in telecoms sector

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) yesterday cited a US congressional report on China’s Huawei Technologies (華為技術) and ZTE Inc (中興通訊) and warned that allowing Chinese investment in the telecommunication sector could pose serious threats to national security.

“Despite a US congressional panel warning on Huawei and ZTE’s security threat, Taiwan is considering opening Type I telecommunications enterprises to Chinese investment. We strongly oppose that,” Hsu told a press conference.

DPP questions Taifer’s procurement practices

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

A state-controlled fertilizer company is selling “watered-down” Chinese fertilizer and has become a place where retired officials and former lawmakers can earn huge salaries, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday.

Taiwan Fertilizer Co (Taifer) sells poor-quality imported Chinese fertilizer despite being the largest fertilizer manufacturer and distributor in Taiwan, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.